About

Antonia Kilian is based between Kassel and Berlin. She studied Visual Communication and Art and Media at the Berlin University of the Arts, and Cinematography at the Film University Potsdam Babelsberg and at the ISA in Havana, Cuba. She works as a DOP for feature and documentary films. For her directorial debut THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER about Hala’s struggle for self-determination, she filmed for more then a year in the Kurdish areas called “Rojava” in northeast Syria. She developed THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER within ExOriente, IDFA Summerschool and Baltic Sea Forum. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER won among 18 Awards at international filmfestivals the German Film Academy Award LOLA for Best Documentary and was in the selection for the European Film Academy Award 2021. With her new production EXILE NEVER ENDS by Bahar Bektas  she particpiated in EURODOC 2022.

Arash Asadi was born in Khorramabad, Iran and lives in Germany. He completed his studies in civil engineering and continued his master’s degree in sociology. In Iran he has made several short films and written narratives for short film documentaries as well as published over 20 articles and essays on topics related to film andcultural studies. He holds a B.A. in filmediting from Filmuniversity Potsdam Babelsberg. He is co-author and editor of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER, which was selected for the European Film Academy Award and won the German Film Award among 18 other awards. He is co-author and editor of EXILE NEVER ENDS by Bahar Bektas which won the Film Critics Award for Best Documentary at Max Ophüls Filmfestival. His short film A LETTER FROM RAQQA celebrated its world premiere at the Kassel DocumentaryFilm Festival and won the Willi Münzenberg Prize. He is a scholarship holder at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation and an alumni of IDFA Project Space. Arash is currently developing his debut as director THE RAIN OF EYES